Thanks – I just listened to it and very much enjoyed the conversation. So many layers to that story and her writing overall. I liked your ‘Book of Job’ idea (which happens to be very much along the lines of a story I am currently writing). There is something essential about Macabea, elemental, the force of nature, a creature stripped of everything except the will to live, to dream, to hope. I was glad you all talked a little about the movie too, which is where I first found the story (in 1987 in San Francisco, with much better subtitles than the version currently available on DVD).